Clear the APT cache to reclaim disk space used by the downloaded packages.
Inspect APT cache configuration
Check out the current APT cache configuration using the following command.
$ apt-config dump | grep "^Dir\( \|::Ca\)"
Dir "/"; Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt"; Dir::Cache::archives "archives/"; Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin"; Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin"; Dir::Cache::Backup "backup/";
Remove every package from the cache
Perform a simulation of the whole process.
$ sudo apt-get clean --dry-run
Del /var/cache/apt/archives/* /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/* Del /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/* Del /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin /var/cache/apt/srcpkgcache.bin
Remove retrieved package files.
$ sudo apt-get clean
Remove outdated packages from the cache
Perform a simulation of the whole process.
$ sudo apt-get autoclean --dry-run Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Del mc-data 3:4.8.18-1 [1,267 kB] Del mc 3:4.8.18-1 [513 kB]
Remove retrieved package files that can no longer be downloaded.
$ sudo apt-get autoclean
You can use APT::Clean-Installed
configuration option to keep or remove outdated and installed packages from a cache.
In the following example the mc
package is installed but cannot be downloaded any longer.
$ apt-cache policy mc mc: Installed: 3:4.8.18-1 Candidate: 3:4.8.18-1 Version table: *** 3:4.8.18-1 100 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
$ apt-cache policy mc-data mc-data: Installed: 3:4.8.18-1 Candidate: 3:4.8.18-1 Version table: *** 3:4.8.18-1 100 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
When APT::Clean-Installed
is set to false
then outdated mc
package that is no longer available in the remote repository will not be removed from the cache as it is installed on the system.
$ sudo apt-get -o APT::Clean-Installed=false autoclean --dry-run Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done
When APT::Clean-Installed
is set to true
then outdated mc
package that is no longer available in the remote repository will be removed from the cache as there are no restrictions imposed on these packages.
$ sudo apt-get -o APT::Clean-Installed=true autoclean --dry-run Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Del mc-data 3:4.8.18-1 [1,267 kB] Del mc 3:4.8.18-1 [513 kB]
Permanently define true
or false
value.
$ echo -e 'APT::Clean-Installed true;' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80_autoclean_installed